Google Criticises CNN Report On Face-Recognition App

Google has criticised a report published by CNN on Thursday morning claiming it was working on a face recognition app, though admitted that the legal ramifications of introducing such technology were being looked at.

The report had raised many eyebrows across the world, due to fears over potential violation of privacy. The proposed application would have the ability to recognise people’s faces and link the images to the concerned individual’s personal information, such as their phone number and home address.

In the original CNN article, Google engineering director for image recognition development, Hartmut Neven, had told the US news giant, "We recognize that Google has to be extra careful when it comes to these [privacy] issues," adding, "Face recognition we will bring out once we have acceptable privacy models in place."

The search giant denied they had any plans to release such an app in statements to PC Mag, Slash Gear and the Android community, among others.

A Google spokesman told PC Mag, "As we've said for more than a year, we will not add facial recognition to Goggles unless we have strong privacy protections in place." He further added, "We're still working on them. We have nothing to announce at this time."

Another Google spokeperson was critical of the tone of the CNN article, "A number of items ‘reported’ in the story, such as a potential app connecting phone numbers, email addresses and other information with a person’s face, are purely speculative and are inventions of the reporter.” he said to SlashGear and members of the Android community.